If you are vegan or would like to become vegan, you may have already come across vitamin B12. This is a topic that is often discussed when talking about a balanced plant-based diet.
It's very important to learn about it before you completely change your diet : I'll give you my tips and views about it, and my favorite supplements.
What is vitamin B12 ?
Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin: it is necessary for the good balance of our body.
Moreover, it cannot be synthesized and must be obtained from external sources (food).
It plays many important roles in our body: brain health, balance of our nervous system and the formation of blood.
Where do we find vitamin B12?
If you have a "classic" diet, and you consume animal products, you don't really have to worry: it is easily obtained from eating meat, eggs or fish.
What you have to know it that it is not made by the animals. As for us, chickens or cows do not produce this vitamin, nor do plants.
In fact, vitamin B12 is produced by a bacteria found in the soil !
Originally, it was obtained naturally by eating some of the soil that was on our food.
Nowadays, we have discovered and introduced hygiene: we wash our fruits and veggies before eating them.
Animals naturally get vitamin B12 by grazing on grass, swallowing a little soil in the process. Now, most animals are no longer raised in the fields and vitamins are usually added to their food.
What if I'm vegan?
Don't go eat dirt please, but it is important that you understand the importance of vitamin B12 for a healthy body. If you follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, you are likely to be deficient.
Vitamin B12 is not found in plants.
You can find this vitamin in fortified foods, such as some plant milks (soy milk)
Nutritional yeast also contains some vitamin B12, as well as certain algae such as spirulina.
You can of course add these foods regularly to your diet, however the quantities they provide will not be sufficient to prevent a deficiency in the long term.
Supplementation
If you are vegan or plan to become vegan, it is really important that you supplement with vitamin B12. There are formulas in spray to "pshitt" under the tongue for a simple use !
What dosage?
What is practical is that we only need 2.4 micrograms of B12 per day, that is to say not much.A supplementation once a week is often sufficient to cover our needs.
Very often, supplements found in pharmacies contain much more than what is needed !
How do I know if I am deficient?
That's the problem!
You can already be deficient without knowing it, because the symptoms do not always appear immediately and can remain vague (headaches, nausea, dizziness, mood swings...)
You can also ask your doctor to run a blood test, but you should know that vitamin B12 deficiency is rather rare and is difficult to detect, unless you already have a serious deficiency which is already problematic.
The symptoms of a real serious deficiency can appear 5 to 10 years after the stocks have been depleted! It is better not to risk getting to that point.
Vitamin B12 supplementation is a simple way to prevent deficiency if you follow a vegan or vegetarian diet.
My favorite formulations :
Vitamin B12 spray: here
Vitamin B12 capsules: here